Dear Patricia 

I notice from your website that you advertise yourself as a registered nurse. I am surprised therefore by the advice that you have given my parents. My father showed me the letter from the oncologist that he sent to you. This letter suggests that my father is dying. However after visiting you my parents were full of hope. My father said you’d mentioned it could be three or four years before he was totally free of tumours. My understanding suggests that he will be dead before then.

 You seem to have suggested and indeed helped them to find a bewildering array of treatments. There is a vast range of supplements, heat therapy, oxygen therapy and intravenous vitamin C. These treatments in total represent a significant cost to my parents who do not have substantial savings. Some of these treatments also involve lengthy journeys and time away from his home and family. He is spending what I expect to be his final days counting pills and worrying that he isn’t doing it right.

These treatments are not proven to be successful and in fact some of them have been extensively tested and found wanting. My parents are assured of the efficiency of these treatments by your profession and the comparisons that you have made with other European countries.

I would like you to explain to me why you feel that these treatments are appropriate for this disease. I do not expect you to disclose any specifics about the case. I am also aware that there may be a discrepancy between what you said and what they heard however they seem to think that you have said something substantially different to the consultant regarding likely outcomes.

Yours faithfully

My dad went into hospital that evening and has deteriorated quickly. New tumours are discovered on the spine. He can no longer recognise us reliably and believes we are in Calcutta. We have long conversations about sterilised needles and how unlucky he is to be ill on holiday. He has always wanted to travel and I’m heartbroken this is the closest he will come.

Visiting the hospital is harrowing, his pain is not under control. He writhes in agony.

Being at home is worse. My mum is in total shock. When she’s with him she can see what is happening. When she turns away she forgets and talks about him as if he is about to be the person he was a week ago. My brother is the same, talks about bringing home and going out for dinner.

We have no plans. There is no living will. We don’t know if he would wish to die at home. We don’t know what sort of funeral he wants. The financial stuff is still in his name, so my mum can’t access money. She worries about how to pay for the funeral.

Friends visit the house. They wonder round dazed and say ‘I don’t understand, he was getting better, they were going to Greece in the spring’. It’s as if he has been in a car crash, it’s so sudden, so unexpected. We could have had time to come to terms, to prepare. I will never ever forgive Patricia for this.

And really I want my dad.

Anyway in the run up to Christmas we are planning meals and treats. I look at the cancer diet advice. There is a summary of a ‘typical’ diet protocol at;

http://ecofrenhealth.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/cancer-why-nutrition-can-help/

It is fairly typical of the advice given. The blog post includes a long detailed explanation of the thinking behind the use of nutrition in combating cancer. It is a complicated diet, and if you are a ‘good patient’ and read around the topic you will encounter different advice, some of it contradictory.

This makes me a little sad, we are gearing up to celebrate our last Christmas together, a time that is often characterised by celebratory meals. We will instead be trying to force feed him with 8 glasses of carrot juice and two jars of sprouts whilst he loses weight and appetite before our eyes. The supplements that are supposed to provide dietary support are imbibed with magical properties.

Nobody can tell him not to do this as other people cannot be trusted. Patricia says:

Also detoxification is as important as what goes in – the rapid removal of toxins from the body would be massively beneficial in reducing the side effects. If someone is on chemotherapy, it´s very important to get any herbal preparations checked out by a qualified practitioner, to make sure there are no interactions, with the chemotherapy. A lot of nutritional and herbal supplements are very strong, and it is dangerous to suppose that because they are natural, they can do no harm. Probably the worst person to ask about this is your oncologist. They rarely know anything about herbal medicine, and they do not have the time to review each individual´s regime and go away and learn about it. If you do ask your oncologist, you will probably be told not to take anything, because they cannot recommend something they know nothing about. If they are very negative about your efforts, this is not a sign that they will be ineffective, just that your oncologist is ignorant. Allowances should be made.

If we are to assume that the oncologist can’t be trusted then we are severely limiting our sources of information. It engenders an attitude of fear where only the alternative health practioner can be trusted.

We help people increase their personal odds of beating cancer – by telling them things about cancer NO ONE ELSE tells them. Every week the e mails and letters we receive tell us just how much we help, how we EMPOWER, and allow people to TAKE BACK CONTROL of their own lives by making more informed personal choices.

Cancer Active

 

This idea of control is a bit of an illusion, a patient is plunged into this unknowable threatening situation. They are afraid, the world has become a darker place. It would be nice to gain some control some power over this situation. However the cancer, the reason for the situation is not controllable. A patient can control his diet but this won’t really bring an end to the uncertainty.

My dad is not being empowered. The retired GP in Tamworth suggested a treatment. I can’t really understand what this is; my dad was to drink something then go under a sun bed. The sun bed would activate the chemical. To be honest I got this information from somebody who is ill and confused; it isn’t entirely clear and he can’t remember the name. Whatever it is costs £11,000 a shot.

My dad asked Patricia, Patricia said no.

I don’t disagree with the advice but it isn’t an empowerment situation, he has simply handed over the power of agency to someone who he trusts.

Which rather relies on her being trustworthy, open and honest.

Isn’t fortunate that she is a member of a professional body taking a supervisory role on questions of ethics.

We take no money from large corporations, our trustees and management take no remuneration – we are trully independent with no vested interests. How many other cancer charities can say that?

Independence is defined (in the Oxford Dictionary of English) as a state of being independent. Independent has a number of definitions…free from outside control; not subject to another’s authority…and not connected with another or each other; separate.

Ms Peat we have mentioned is a patron of Cancer Active, this is mentioned on her website.  Cancer Options gets a glowing write up on Cancer Active (who don’t declare a connection on that page).

Cancer Active links Ms Peat and Dr Etheridge, a link which isn’t clear on the Cancer Options site. Dr Etheridge has is own site where he refers to his relationship with Cancer Options (describing him as Director of Research and Head Consultant for Cancer Options). He also ‘dispenses’ herbal remedies and supplements.

Cancer Options have ordered various supplements for my dad which appear to be provided by the supplier Dr Etheridge mentions on his website. Dr Etheridge is also Director and Head Consultant at Integrated Cancer Healthcare.

Is this true independence?

If I’m looking at a cancer website, where treatments are offered to patients, and I see the term ‘qualified doctor’ I’m expecting this to be a medical doctor. On Cancer Active I see that Ms Peat has a new friend.

Dr Chris Etheridge, trained at Imperial College, is a qualified doctor, chemist, biochemist and now runs the medical practice which is closest to this heart, that of herbal medicine.

He has letters after his name:

PhD BSc(Hons) Chem, BSc (Hons) Herb Med, MCPP, MRSC CChem, DolC, ARCS

I’m not entirely sure what all of these are; but none of them make him a medical doctor.

I intend to complain however I’m finding that I’m already mastering the reasons for a complaint failure in my head. It is a third party website*; he does have a PhD and he isn’t claiming to offer doctoring.

*When I say a ‘third party website’ Ms Peat is a Patron of the Cancer Active charity.

But surely I thought nobody would suggest that cancer can be cured by changing thought patterns? I’m reluctant to read any of her newer books as I’d have to buy them first but I took a look at her website and found the following. A clear suggestion that negative thinking is connected to physical illness.

DEAR LOUISE,

Any words of wisdom about Crohn’s Dis-ease? Thank you in advance.

-Denise 
Dear Denise,

Some people with conditions in the colon feel they are not good enough. Their attitude is that they can’t trust anyone to do anything for them, and that they may not be enough to do the job either.

I highly recommend making an appointment for a supervised body cleansing with a nutritionist so as to discover and integrate the best diet plan for your particular body. Doing this is an act of love for yourself. Integrating the needs of the whole being, (body, mind and spirit) is the most successful path to living a life of wholeness and health. Traditional medicine can be of tremendous help especially when it is used in conjunction with any variety of alternative therapies that calls to the individual, such as food therapy, vitamins and minerals, herbs, colonics and bodywork; including acupuncture, yoga, reflexology, massage, etc.

Affirmations to use: I HAVE HIGH REGARD AND RESPECT FOR MYSELF. I SUPPORT AND LOVE MYSELF UNCONDITIONALLY. AS A RESULT I AM SAFE TO EXPRESS ALL THAT I AM! I affirm for you an abundance of peace, gratitude and self love. May your life be blessed and your actions of love continue to grow!

Louise 
Note:
Louise Hay does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. In the event you use any of the information in this column for yourself, neither Louise Hay, contributors to this website, nor the publisher accepts responsibility for your actions.

Now obviously I haven’t attended the Vision of Hope Clinic and my dad hasn’t been well enough to make the journey but the suggestion is that there is somebody telling people they just have to think the right stuff to get better. Back to our old friend positive thinking.

http://www.louisehay.com/dear-louise/

The recent Burzinsky affair has led sceptics to wonder how they can help those falling victim to cancer quackery (Not Forgotten). There is however a lot that sceptics do already do. When I googled “Vision of Hope Clinic” one of the first sites I encountered was The Sceptical Letter Writer (http://scepticalletterwriter.blogspot.com/). He had published a letter he had written to the ASA about the clinic. I then found on Cancer Active the following:

This ´clinic´ seems to have fallen foul of the people chanting “1939 Cancer Advertising Act”, who want you never to hear about such places. What we know about it is that it attempted to focus on metabolic therapy and nutrition in Brighton.

This allowed me to discover that I wasn’t the only person who had doubts and that some of these doubts had been taken seriously enough for something to happen. This was a major breakthrough for me. It allowed me to think more clearly. Sceptics are doing a great job by making information available.

I also discovered Quackwatch (http://www.quackwatch.com/) which allowed me to look at individual treatments and discover what they were (in real world language). It outlined the process, the likelihood of success and also the likely harm.

The thing I would like to see out there (and one day I might have time to write it) is a website like Cancer Active but giving the sceptical viewpoint. Cancer active is a website that people find when they are looking for information on the web after being diagnosed with cancer. It outlines every sort of therapy that you could imagine with no criticism.

Something similar but taking a ‘this will help with nausea but not cure cancer’ route would be really helpful. Especially if it explained a little bit about what cancer is, what a biopsy is and what the conventional treatments are. I think that it is easy to overestimate the level of medical knowledge in the general population (or at least in my family).

I would also like to thank the sceptics who’ve taken the time to read and promote by blog; making me feel that I am not alone. I don’t really know how else I can campaign against these quacks so any further advice would be welcomed.

There are individual sceptics who’ve helped me too, but that is a separate issue.

 I feel that this offering of alternative therapies by those trading on their professional status is dishonest. If you go to an acupuncturist and get acupuncture then to some extent it’s fair enough.

My complaint is that they are trading on there status (I’m a doctor, I’m a nurse) whilst recommending/conducting treatments that are outside of their scope and delivered in potentially dangerous ways in the case of Vitamin C. As an accountant we have a duty of due care- which means that we shouldn’t do things that we are not competent to do. This nurse is not trained to recommend treatments and yet is doing so- trading on her ‘I’m a nurse’ label. The doctor is trained to recommend treatments but has not specialised in oncology (or anything else as far as I can gather). He does not seem to have suitable premises etc for delivering the IV treatments either. I therefore think they are operating outside of their field of expertise but trading on the reassurance people take from the membership of the relevant professional institutions.

Even if they are experts in the relevant field and should recommend treatments in their professional settings then I still don’t think they should advertise under the nurse or doctor label when offering alternative treatments. If they are so critical of the medical profession they shouldn’t seek to use it to assure their credentials.

I realise that she means well but it isn’t very helpful. I feel that I can’t say I’m so sad he’s dying.

When the purveyor of miracle treatments does the same thing, tells us that he is getting better then not only do we stop saying he’s dying but we stop thinking it.

This can do a life time of harm. Visiting my parents isn’t easy. It’s emotionally difficult and logistically difficult. I have a full time job, a child and friends. It is a 200 mile round trip. Seeing my dad involves waiting for him to be awake, to be well enough for visitors to be meaningful. If he is getting better than I won’t make those extra trips, stay those extra hours and I will regret it for the rest of my life.

I want us to spend our last time together doing things we enjoy. I spend my money on films, on a nice bottle of wine and some chocolates. I don’t want to miss these special times because all the financial and other resources are being poured into these treatments.

This false hope is also leading to poor decision making across the family. My brother doesn’t visit enough, my aunt has postponed her wedding and my dad is negotiating a very poor redundancy deal. His job is disappearing in a public sector restructure and he is hoping for early retirement. He sees the pension as the important element when in fact it might be the lump sum.

I could tell you other stories, I know a women is dying of breast cancer. She has refused conventional treatment and believes that the IV vitamin C would cure her. She can’t afford it and is spending those last months believing that her life would be saved if only she had the money. I know somebody else who lost their mother to cancer and is struggling not only with their grief but with a £10,000 debt they incurred buying ineffective treatment.

So please rob me of my hope and leave me to spend some special time with the person I love.